Planting is right around the corner

You know spring is really here when the planters start going. There have been a few guys in the neighborhood start planting corn. I think its a little to early, and the ground temperature is a little to low to be planting. I will wait it out, especially after this rain we had. I don't expect to be plating till around the 22nd of this month.

I am planning to get the planter 100% done this week. I just have a few odds and ends to finish up, and then it will be ready to go. Last week we also got our Nitrogen applied on our corn ground. The ground worked really well and we should have a great seedbed to plant it.

Here are some pics of the Anhydrous Ammonia getting applied. (click on the pic to enlarge it)











Here is a pic of the "strip" of tilled ground where I will plant on.



That's all for now. I'll post some pics of the planter when I have it 100% done. I also will post some pics of the shed site. Pretty much all of the fill dirt has been brought in to make a level building site. The shed materials should be delivered by the end of the month and it should be be finished by the end of May.

The planter is coming along well.

Well I have been working on the planter for the last two weeks. I have only worked on it here and there when I had a few hours to spend so its not going extremely fast but a lot faster then I thought it would.

So far I have pretty much removed every moving part. I have sanded and painted all the row units. That took a lot of time because I could only do one side at a time on the row units or I would get paint on me. Thankfully I am done painting them now. I have stated putting it all back together now. I have installed the Yetter T adjust closing wheel brackets and I have also installed the accuplant independent gauge wheel are controller. I am going to start sanding and painting the gauge wheels, and start installing the Martin double spiked closing wheels.

I still think I will have ti done by the end of the month, but I have a lot of work left to do. Planting is just around the corner and I need that planter to be in tip top shape!

Here is a few pics of the planter before and after. Click on them to view a larger image.





Current





Old parts and new parts side by side







I'm glad I used the mask!



I still have a lot more parts to put on here is one of the piles.



That's about it for the planter. I got a few pic of the fill dirt they brought in for the shed site.






Well that's it for now I will post some more pics next week to show what else I have done. Thanks for reading!

Got a corn head today!

Well after looking for about a year, I signed a check for a 643 corn head today. I didn't grow any corn last year so I really didn't need to buy one but I wanted to get one early enough in the year I can go over it really well before harvest so I can have it ready to go. Its just a older metal high tin model, but it should work well for my operations.

I did end up getting the rest of the planter parts today, and I will officially start tearing the planter down tomorrow. I have a lot of work ahead of me, I plan to get the kinze in tip top shape before April. I will post pics of my progress along the way and do some before and after pics.

We did sign for the shed last week! I have been looking forward to getting a machine shed put up since I bought my first tractor, actually I wanted one before that so I would have a place to put it. I went with a Morton 60' by 120' machine shed. With 2 doors. A 30' double sliding door on one of the 60' sides. And a 18' electric roll up door on a 120' side on the opposite end as the 30' door. It will be plenty big for the equipment that I have now, but it will give me room to grow and not worry about out growing my shed storage in a short time. The materials will be delivered in late April and the shed should be done by the end of May. I cant Waite for it to be done! I will post pics of it along the way.


I think things are about to get real busy around the farm, before you know it mowing season will start up again.

The start of 2011

Well 2011 is off to a great start. We are in the process of getting a machine shed put up. Right now were are still waiting on getting the site prep work done. We are going to have about 20 truckloads of dirt hauled in to make level.

As I said last year, we added a little more ground this year and the shed is going on the new ground.

In the next week I am going to pick up part to rebuild my planter. I am rebuilding the whole thing. I am putting new seed disks, scrapers, seed tubes, spiked closing wheels and new adjusting brackets, I will also be getting new precision planting corn meeters and much much more. I have been looking forward to rebuilding this planter, it should be really nice when I am done.

I will try a lot harder to keep this blog updated this year, I really slacked last year but this year will be different.

I can't wait till the ground dries up and I am in the field, but before that can happen I have a lot of work to do.

Thanks for reading!

Harvest has come and gone

Well harvest has come and gone. I learned a lot this year, and I am a little less intimidated of the combine. It actually did not break down at all this year, I just had some trouble getting the head to feed right. This year was a big success. I had really low inputs, and I got above average yield. This was the year to start farming!

Right now I am getting the shredder ready to shred around my field, and then I have 50 acres of CREP to mow. I hope that I can get that done before we get much more rain.

Its time to start thinking about next year. I am increasing my acerage by about 50%, and I will be planting both corn and soybeans.

I have already had my soybean ground for next year strip tilled and I look forward to seeing how well that helps the plants grow and if I can see a yield advantage.

Less then 3 weeks to go!

Well I went down to the farm this evening and looked at the beans. They have really turned yellow, I may be in the filed as soon as 2 weeks. The crop looks pretty good, but we got some hard rain tonight and hopefully is went just north of the farm. Storm damage is the last thing I need right now!

I took my tractor in to the dealer to get the steering fixed (it would go craze on the road and you could only go about 10 mph) about a month ago. Well they are just now putting it back together. I really hope they hurry up, I need the thing to haul my soybeans to the elevator this fall.

Pics are not working right on this site so here is a link to Photobucket

Combines are starting to roll!

Well I guess its that time of year. You go outside and smell the air and there is that hint of fall. The corn is turning brown, and the beans are just starting to turn. This year, it seems fall came early. I'm not complaining though, fall is my favorite season hands down.

Things have been really busy the last week. I have just a few things to do to the combine before I take it to the field. I don't think I will need it in my filed for a while, but it will be nice to know it is ready to go when the beans are ready to be harvested.

So far I know of 4 farmers who have started harvesting (some just opening fields). I think that in the next week you will see some more guys get going. I am wondering how this fall will go. It seems that everyone has some high moisture corn, with some lower moisture corn. This may be a year where we start corn early but it takes a while to get done. I just hope is is better then last year.

Well thats all for now, I will try to get some harvesting pics up here soon.

Jarzen Farms